Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

After making quite the splash last year, Rory Marshall is back with another menagerie of carefully observed characters, this batch inspired by the world of work because – like many in the arts – he’s done quite a lot of jobs.

But while this year’s creations are both identifiable and precisely performed, there’s generally little edge to them, especially compared to the toxic insecurities of those in his debut.

Because of the sort of work a performer is likely to be drawn to – and the basic theatrical requirements of a show in front of an audience  – a number of the new batch are also presented in broadly similar situations, corralling colleagues or customers into an activity.

This is most apparent in his first, and recurring, alter ego of an office staffer organising the works’ drinks. It’s a job he absolutely relishes, ramping up the scale and frequency of the social events because he has little else going on in his life. 

The credibility of the performance is, however, undermined by the extravagances of his party-planning, such as hiring out the Palace of Versailles. Of the sketches recreating this keen organiser’s team-bonding exercises, the best is speed-dating, allowing Marshall to convey plenty of aspects of his character’s life with admirable economy. The weakest is the over-the-top payoff, throwing too much at the wall.

After we are first introduced to this guy comes another sketch about someone trying to muster up enthusiasm for fun, as Marshall becomes a flyerer, attempting to entice punters into a nightclub with the promise of 2-for-1 Jagerbombs and increasingly aggressive tactics.

Continuing the theme of big days and nights out, comes someone who’s been to Glastonbury and made it their whole personality – this smug bore is peak observational comedy from Marshall, recreating the tiresomeness of the type of person we all know.

Later, his surf instructor character involves audience interaction, giving his mark important safety-critical instructions that are amusingly impossible to comply with. 

The bullying is more apparent and less playful in his fiery chef – though parodies of such Gordon Ramsay-style figures seem a bit dated now, even if the scene does contain a couple of good gags – and the nightclub bouncer, taking banter-as-psychological abuse to extremes, though the joke here is laboured and needlessly foreshadowed.

Marshall himself doesn’t entirely seem at ease with the show and his creations – although omitting a sketch, as he does tonight, could happen to everyone. Ironically, these characters based on the world of employment probably need more work.

Review date: 13 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard